Cat on a Hot Trash Route
Book #4 of the Cats & Crime series is satisfying in that we get to know Lorilee's second ward, Wendy (once known as Birdy) better and find out more about her past. One of the joys of writing a series is finding characters that stand up and holler, "More about me, please!" In the Sleuth Sisters series, a guy who was supposed to be only a goon sent to harass Barb and Faye became an ongoing character. With guidance from the sisters, his behavior improved immensely, and he became both helpful and likable. In this series, Greg, the neighbors' kid, is a brat, but he too changes as he matures. I don't know about other writers, but these are seldom planned events for me. I invent characters as needed for one story, but some of them seem to want to stick around for later episodes. Sometimes readers comment that they like this one or that one, which leads me to include them in later books. Most, maybe all, of my characters begin as a hazy version of someone I've...
